Arming For Adventure, or: "Why Would I Want One of Those?" - Basic Equipment in D&D, Part 3

Encumbrance is probably the single most hated and ignored rule in all of Dungeons & Dragons history (although 'keeping track of literally every material spell component' gives Encumbrance a run for its money). I've never met a player who enjoyed all the bookkeeping necessary to ensure encumbrance compliance, although I have met my fair share of DMs who take obscene delight in hosing the party on weight restrictions at critical moments. Encumbrance is the gaming equivalent of diagramming sentences in your English class: it does little more than waste time which could be spent doing literally anything else for a greater reward.

That said, as a Dungeon Master myself, while I hate Encumbrance, I am a member of the, "You didn't buy it? Then you don't have it!" club. This isn't (solely) because I want to be a dick to my players, it's because I want to spur them on to greater heights of creativity than even they thought possible. See also: schadenfreude. Some of my most memorable times around the gaming table have involved my PCs using seemingly unrelated mundane items to MacGyver their way out of difficult situations. With a little planning and some creativity, you can turn nearly anything in the Player's Handbook into a way out of a potential problem, so let's take a look at the basic Adventuring Gear table from page 150 and suss out some not-so-obvious uses for some not-so-obvious equipment.

In Part 2, we went from 'Caltrops' to 'Crowbar', so today we're starting with...

Druidic Focus

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Like the Antivenom from part 1, these items are all single-use, what-you-see-is-what-you-get pieces. With costs varying between 1 and 10 gold, these are just there to help your Druid cast her spells. If you want a wooden staff, spring for a Quarterstaff instead, which costs 5 silver instead of 5 gold, and can double as a weapon. Yew wands, at 10 gold each, are strictly for showing off how wealthy your Druid is. Which, I dunno, if you're a tree-hugging hippie sort, should you be advertising your materialism?

Fishing Tackle

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This 1 gold object is a must for anybody planning on adventuring anywhere near the water, since it contains everything you'd need to catch fish: rod, line, hooks, bobbers, lures, sinkers, and even a special narrow-woven net. Beyond the obvious use for providing dinner, things like fish hooks, fishing line, and nets offer a variety of secondary uses. For the hooks alone, they could be stuck to the end of a branch or pole and used to fish items out of inconvenient places; bent open for use as makeshift needles; bent together as closers to secure cloth wrappings; used to support a blanket or tarp to keep the sun/rain off; emergency suture needles for closing up the gaping wound left after a critical hit; or strung from the ceiling to make an extremely painful trap for someone to blunder into.

D&D doesn't have specific rules for fishing in 5E, it's up to your DM to determine what happens when the PCs jaunt down to the lake to retrieve supper. Keep in mind that the D&D world is a hazardous one, and there are certain areas you may not want to go casting lest you snag something that would prefer to stay submerged. . .

Flask/Tankard

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You're most likely to encounter these items in taverns, but for PCs who insist on bringing their own dishes everywhere, a measly two coppers gets you reasonably rugged container that can hold up to a pint of liquid. Alternately, once you've dumped out the oil or alchemist's fire (and assuming you didn't smash it against the ground or another creature), or drank the potion, you can mark it off your list and give yourself an empty flask in its stead.

The Player's Handbook doesn't specifically mention this in the item description, but flasks are assumed to have some type of closure mechanism like a screw-top lid or a cap, while tankards are likely to be open-top affairs. Flasks are for transporting liquid across long distances, while tankards are for transporting liquid across very short distances (like from your hand to your mouth). Tankards can be hurled like improvised weapons, which is useful if you happen to take the Tavern Brawler feat or fancy yourself some kind of Drunken Boxing master Monk. Flasks, on the other hand, could be smashed up to strew broken glass over an area although Caltrops provide better bang for your buck in this regard. Tankards could also be used as part of a makeshift rain catching system when water runs low, or in any other situation where you find it helpful to move a small amount of liquid from one area to another.

Grappling Hook

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The grappling hook is a large, multi-pronged hooked piece of metal that, when attached to a rope (not included) serves as a climbing aid. Stealthy types should always have one of these on hand, since you never know when a second- or third-story window might be left open, or the need for quick access to a rooftop rear its head.

Beyond that, you could use the grappling hook + rope combo with your block and tackle to create a single-person elevator, or just with the rope and hook to fish something out of an inconvenient place like the bottom of a well without having to climb down there yourself. Use it to save yourself from quicksand surprises, and in conjunction with your climbing gear to exit any pits you bungle into.

Hammer

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Used for driving nails, spikes, or other small objects into another surface (or prying them out if you use the other end). If you're trying to spike open a door, hang a picture, or assemble a wooden structure, you'll want one of these. Also useful for breaking glass, ringing bells, or bothering the Paladin by dinging on his armor. Could be used as an improvised weapon in a pinch, but they're really more about carpentry than combat. If you're looking to fight with hammers, look on the weapon list for things like the War Hammer or Light Hammer and use this to put a roof over your humble abode.

Hammer, Sledge

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Sledgehammers are for either smashing things like walls or as mining equipment for driving spikes or breaking up rocks. If you don't have access to a battering ram, but do have access to a ridiculously high Strength score, you could use this to bash open locked doors, batter holes in buildings, break open chests or other storage containers, and so forth. While it's not meant to be used as a weapon, there's no denying that swinging ten pounds of solid metal into an enemy can cause serious injury and potentially break limbs.

While it doesn't have any specific rules for its usage, I'd argue this tool belongs in the same category as the Crowbar, granting advantage on any Strength checks where the Sledgehammer would logically help. Take this up with your DM before you assume that will be the case though.

Healer's Kit

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At five gold it's one of the pricier items on the list, but when you need it you'll be glad you have it. This item is basically ten uses of the Spare the Dying cantrip, allowing anyone at all to use their action to stabilize a creature at 0 hit points without having to pass a Wisdom (Medicine) check. It contains bandages, splints, and medicinal salves which may come in handy if your DM incorporates house rules for broken bones, sprains, burns, and other complications of adventuring life. Otherwise, this is like the Druidic Focus above: one specific use with few if any secondary applications.

Holy Symbol

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Mainly for role-playing purposes, a character can use a holy symbol as a spell focus for divine casters like Paladins and Clerics. This is handier than the spell focuses for some other classes, because it can be worn around the neck or built into a shield rather than be carried around in hand. Not much use outside of these purposes, but if you lose yours and don't have a spare, you'll be in a world of hurt until you can acquire a new one. At five gold apiece, this is a mistake low-level characters cannot afford to make.

Holy Water

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When you absolutely, positively need to make sure the undead don't come back, you turn to this potent potable. Uncap that flask and let 'er splash (or throw it as an improvised weapon) for 2d6 radiant damage to fiends and undead. Holy Water prevents vampires from regenerating hit points, consecrates ground for ceremonies, and (assuming you aren't a fiend or undead yourself) could be consumed as a last-ditch water supply. Though at 25 gold per flask, you really don't want to rely on this as your only source of hydration.

Folks whose eyes bug out at that price may be tempted to create their own, and the PHB has rules for this. Unfortunately they require nothing less than 25 gold pieces' worth of materials in the form of consecrated, powdered silver and the expenditure of a first-level spell slot. Whether you're planning to redecorate Castle Ravenloft, or an expedition into the Abyss, Holy Water's a great thing to have.

There's another use for holy water that may not be instantly apparent, but could potentially save your bacon in the right circumstances. There are numerous spells and powers that render the target immune to detection, scrying, and other effects which allow them to disguise their true self, their alignment, or other characteristics. Powerful undead like vampires, for instance, can deceptively look like ordinary humanoids, and many fiends have the ability to shapeshift or polymorph themselves into looking like whatever they want. Powerful illusion magic could make an entire army of zombies or skeletons look like a typical gathering of peasants. These creatures can hide from a Paladin's ability to detect fiends and undead, are a simple saving throw away from defeating a Zone of Truth spell, and could mask any potential 'tells' via simple illusions. Know what they can't hide from though? A few drops of Holy Water. Dip a finger in your flask, then flick some at your target. The reaction you get should be all you need to know--the glibbest vampire or shape-shiftiest demon in the world can't prevent Holy Water from smoking on contact.

You don't even need to use Holy Water in this way to get at the truth though. Remember the movie The Faculty, where the kids devised a test to prove they hadn't been infected by the aliens by requiring one another to do a quick hit of a drug containing a desiccant (yes, I know the word used in the film is "diuretic"; screenwriter Kevin Williamson simply got his terms mixed up)? A simple request of, "Would you be willing to drink this to prove you aren't a undead/a fiend?" should be enough to thwart even the most Charismatic liars.

Truly unhinged and/or barbaric PCs could use barrels of Holy Water to permanently rid themselves of undead/hellish menaces by grappling/restraining them and dunking them, either fully or limb by limb. This is the perfect disposal method for things like Flaming Skulls which will otherwise re-animate to attack after a short dormancy period. Since a single flask of Holy Water deals 2d6 radiant damage, and a barrel can hold 40 gallons (320 pints), being fully immersed in a barrel of Holy Water would impart a truly (un)hellacious amount of damage: something on the order of 20d6 per round (10d6 of only half-submerged, and 5d6 for just a limb). Of course, you're looking at an 8,002 gold piece expenditure to put together such a doomsday weapon, and good luck restraining a vampire long enough to give it a bath, but if you absolutely want to ensure your abyssal and/or necrotic foe never comes back to mess with you again, this is how you do it.

Hourglass

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When you want to mark the passage of time, there's nothing like an hourglass. The grains of sand trickling through the narrow-necked bottle take 60 minutes to empty from top to bottom, and such a magnificent device can be yours for 25 gold pieces.

On the other hand, candles burn for exactly an hour, can be marked for shorter intervals, and can be used as slow-burning fuses for setting off explosives. You'd have to go through 2,500 candles to equal the amount you'd spend on a single hourglass. Unless you're a wizard working in a lab around things you'd prefer not to expose to open flame, the light of a candle would cause problems, or under drafty/rainy conditions that could extinguish the fire, use candles to mark the passage of time and save yourself some money.

Hunting Trap

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This is a classic spring-loaded bear trap of the type depicted in cartoons older than your grandfather. You set it with your action, then wait for something to blunder into it and step on the pressure plate, at which point they either succeed on a DC 13 Dexterity save, or take 1d4 piercing damage and stop moving. Anything so caught, or anyone willing to help, can make a DC 13 Strength check each round to free itself, but failed attempts deal another point of piercing damage to the trapped target.

Hunting Traps are useful if you're looking to take prisoners, especially if the trap itself can be camouflaged in some way, and fixed to a tree, pillar, or other heavy/immovable object to prevent your trapped critter from running off. Rangers and other sorts would use them to trap game animals and live off the land. Used in conjunction with Caltrops, Ball Bearings, Create Bonfire, and other similar things, it's possible to create nightmarish control zones and choke points on a battlefield. The only real down-side is their expense (five gold) and weight (25 pounds).

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That's it for this installment of "Arming For Adventure". Check back later for a look at some more goodies off the equipment chart, and suggestions for more obnoxious ways to use mundane gear in your campaign!